Changes to definition of wages

The January 2021 Instructions for Form 8994, under "How To Figure the Credit," state that the term "wages" doesn't include any amount taken into account for purposes of determining any sick and family leave or employee retention credit claimed on an employment tax return. However, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, enacted March 11, 2021, modified and extended the employee retention credit to cover wages paid after June 30, 2021, and before January 1, 2022. Instead of continuing to reduce wages for amounts used to determine the employee retention credit, the term "qualified wages" for purposes of this extended employee retention credit is redefined to not take into account wages used to figure the employer credit for paid family and medical leave on Form 8994. The next revision of the Instructions for Form 8994 will include this change.